Tuesday, February 26, 2013

WiHM: Final Girls: Why Women Kicking Ass Melts Our Hearts

-by Marie Robinson

Like any Bollywood film, horror cinema can sometimes be formulaic — in
particular, slasher films. Our essential yet interchangeable elements
are a small, quiet town and a terror turned loose upon it. Sometimes our
antagonist is a supernatural force, but usually it’s some depraved dude
wielding a trademark weapon. And since this is at the root a simple
tale of good versus evil, we must have a heroine, who we genre fans have
come to know and love her as the Final Girl.

What does it mean
to be a Final Girl? Well, obviously it means you are the last one
standing, that is, if some unexpected twist doesn’t come your way. Say,
like, a rotted hand bursting from the lake you thought you were
peacefully floating away on. It means you have come face to face with
the incarnation of evil and struck that motherfucker down.

What
does it take to be a Final Girl? A strong, courageous, bad-ass chick who
isn’t afraid to shed some blood, which is why we love her. There is
nothing more satisfying than watching a big hulking mass of human
butcher triumphed by an angsty, blood-spattered babe.

The trials
in our Final Girl’s life may be somewhat trivial, but unarguably
relatable—well, to a point. Her everyday enemies are her parents and
authority, who will pooh-pooh her cries for help and think of her as a
child as opposed to the woman she is closer to becoming. If tension
isn’t high enough in her swirling world of adolescence, she will soon
have to deal with the added drama of fleeing a psychopath who is picking
off her closest friends one by one, and then single-handedly killing
that psychopath.

Seriously, when you really entertain the idea,
these girls have a lot more to worry about than acne and good grades.
You thought getting your period in the girls locker room was a big
deal? Try watching all your best friends from K-12 get mutilated. If
these situations occurred more often in real life I would totally open
up a psychiatric institute for Final Girls.

Sexuality is a main
theme in slasher cinema. The Final Girl is traditionally a virgin, and
an overall symbol of innocence and purity. Her modesty is usually her
strong point, since that lusty circle of friends of hers are getting
picked off by the pair; getting poked means getting choked in the realm
of the slasher. We could get real deep (that sounds filthy in
retrospect) with all the sexual innuendo and Freudian slips in these
films—phallic and yonic images and all that—but that would be a whole
new article.

When we inevitably have our showdown of Final Girl
vs. Baddy, she is liberated not by sex, not even entirely by violence,
but by vengeance -which in her case is probably more satisfying than
getting laid, anyway. Watching her struggle from the beginning to the
very bloody end, we get to know our protagonist, and we can’t help but
cheer when that bastard gets what’s coming.

Some Final Girls are
more complex than other— and more likeable. Some are a downright
disgrace to womankind and make a fierce feminist like myself want to take
a chainsaw to their face. This could be said for any film, as any genre
has its share of classy and trashy, but it seems that the horror genre
in particular finds itself teetering between the lines of misogyny and
feminism fairly often.

Films like The Cabin in the Woods and Behind
the Mask are a tribute to slasher films and both give a great example of
a Final Girl. Tasteful and empowering, not a dumbass with a dye job and
tits galore. In order for a Final Girl to be effective, she needs to be
as close to the real thing as possible. It makes her victory that much
more gratifying.

Speaking of “the real thing”, I wish there was
more diversity in the realm of the Final Girl. I’ve seen a million
skinny, beautiful white girls kill off the bad guy, but how about we get
some voluptuous ladies kicking some ass, or some women of color? I’m
looking at you, filmmakers!

If you are interested in the topic of
feminism in horror, a few print titles you might be interested in are
Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J.
Clover andHouse of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of
Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films by Kier-La Janisse.
Also, Day of the Woman is a blog dedicated to “the feminine side of
fear” and is an absolutely fun time.

*The second week of February here at FWF, we highlighted two Final Girls everyday. Check it out!!

Happy Women in Horror Month,
everyone! And to all the vicious vixens out there, keep your machete
hand strong!

1 comment:

Shocks are so much better absorbed with the knees bent...

We Wrote That:

*Christine Hadden is the creator, editor, and head writer of the Rondo-nominated blog Fascination with Fear and has been an obsessed horror fan for longer than many of her readers have been alive. She can overlook movie plot holes in exchange for style and atmosphere, rejects both the 3D and found footage phenomenons, values high gore content when done right, always prefers practical effects over CGI, and has an undying love of vampires. She considers Norman Bates her homeboy and claims Jaws as her favorite film. She has written for Fangoria and Paracinema magazines, MoviePilot, and Eli Roth's horror app The Crypt. She enjoys Kentucky bourbon and red, red wine. But not together.

Contributing Writer

*Marie Robinson is an aspiring folklore expert, published writer, and obvious old soul from St. Louis, MO. She considers Roman Polanski one of her favorite directors, The Sentinel among the scariest of films she's seen, and has read both Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James - making her wise beyond her years. In her spare time, she enjoys wandering through misty cemeteries, seeking knowledge and proof of paranormal activity, and prepping her next frightening short story. Besides Fascination with Fear, she contributes to Destroy the Brain and has written for Eli Roth's horror app: The Crypt.